ARRYAM

Well, here you go, Noise Mongers. And in advance, I say "You're Welcome." The start/stop mania of "80" and those mental sounding drum rolls...that's where I really felt hooked, but you might get sucked in even sooner. Seoul's ARRYAM harness all of the face melting power of blown out noise punk and present it with the fury of early '00s fastcore, trading DBeats for blast beats and making two subgenres seem fresh and exciting in the process. Dongwoo (SCUMRAID) must have shredded his throat laying down these vocals, and JP (MY MAN MIKE) has genuinely reinvented relentless with his drums....this thing is just a fukkn beast. A dozen creamers in less than 13 minutes, but I dare say that most listeners wouldn't be able to handle any more than that. 

DANCE VIOLENCE

SCUMRAID

Remember a few years ago when all you mutants wanted on Mondays was some blown out, distortion laden noise? I miss those days. For a while you just wanted goth rehash nonsense, and maybe you still do, or maybe I just don't know what you want anymore, but I'll be fukkd if a blast of face melting distortion doesn't start my week off right. So as this year's Manic Relapse fest approaches, here's a blast from the best band that graced the Bay Area at last year's fest, South Korea's SCUMRAID. If you have the internet (and, let's be frank here: you do), then you must already know about this trio so introductions and descriptions are probably wasted on you. But here you go - 6 1/2 minutes of blistering and relentless noise punk. And for the (foolish) few who think this subgenre passĂ©, listen to the guitar at the 0:12 mark of "Generation," and then pay close attention until the 0:34 mark....and now fukkn tell me these freaks aren't geniuses. Go ahead. You can tell me, but you'll be wrong. The starts/stops in "Controlled Society"? Brilliant. From complete insanity to total stop and then back again before you even know what the fukk happened. So yeah...it's Monday. 

SCUMRAID: WEST COAST 2016 

FUNDAMENTAL

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you stopped publicly backing and pretending to listen to blistering ear torture distortion with light speed neanderthal beats. I guess I'll try to post some en vogue and/or currently cool things soon. You'll have to suffer through this until then. But on the up side, the THE BOYS cover here is next level awesome. 

6 SICKLY TRAX

THOUGHT PATTERN

Outta sight Southern California garage mutants, THOUGHT PATTERN dust up old and well worn vibes from bands like '90s SF warehouse denizens GAY BARBARIANS while harnessing the energy and irreverence of THE SPITS. "Kimberly" is either the creepiest or the sweet love song ever (why do I have to choose?) while 4-track missives like "The Sound Of One Hand Clapping" are straight out of the 50 MILLION catalog (more under the radar Bay Area references here....I would say I'm sorry, but if you know, then you know) and "God's Country" is a full on guitar frenzied psychrock freak out a la DEBRIS and I hear SPARKS seeping through the tracks more than a few times. What I'm trying to say is that if you want to make it weird, then make it weird....but it helps if you also know how to make it right.

THE BRADFORDS

LOTUS FUCKER

You mutants know the drill here, right? Through countless membership changes and mutations, Baltimore's LOTUS FUCKER have been sporadically serving up ferocious noise punk for the better part of a decade...and it still cuts straight through the shit and draws blood. The shit is pure, the shit is weird, and the shit is not for the timid. Maximum volume, please.

THE PLANTED SEED: THIS TIME I WILL SHOW YOU HAPPINESS

FILTHY HATE

Relentless and demonic over the top Japanese metalcrust. You know the drill. Link below. 

HATRED STENCH STENCH CORPSE // POSSESSED TO SATAN

VIOLENCE

This Oakland outfit only played a few shows before things fell apart...and I sadly didn't even see them once. One time I was in a line outside the show, waiting to get frisked, stubbornly refusing to even attempt to pull some weird "scene card" that I probably didn't even (don't even) have to jump the line so I could see the first band....and so I listened to aural strains of VIOLENCE outside the venue instead of seeing them in the flesh. They sounded like a complete mess. And I wish I had tried to pull that card. And these eight minutes is all that is left. Four women. No guitars. Weird and uncomfortable post punk presented as noise punk....yeah, I really wish I had tried to jump the line that night. "We Want Anarchy" is fukkn primal, there's just no other way to describe it. It's not "good" buy any classical definition, but it's more "real" than most of the bullshit that passes as punk in these modern days. Keep it weird, y'all. Keep not giving a fukk. 

VIOLENCE

Also - try searching the internet for a band called VIOLENCE. Seriously. It's fun. 

REVAS EN LA SONGO

Two young Japanese powerhouses crank out three tracks each of relentless destruction. MALIMPLIKI turn their churn into into a rhythmic pulse that surges with the beat, distorted almost to the point of losing any semblance to music whatsoever (this is a good thing) - total intensity. SACA LA FIESTA skip the distortion, but their sound is still dirty and raw as fukk. Two short, smart punk blasts with shouted female vocals and the longer, slower "My Truth" to bring Revas En La Songo to a close. There are so many bands in Japan....

REVAS EN LA SONGO

BUTTZZ

Feisty and catchy garage punk with '90s college radio hooks, but delivered with the bombastic distorted fury that the cover implies. M.O.T.O. meets D-CLONE? Yeah.....

BUTTZZ

COLLAPSE SOCIETY

Noisy and chaotic beyond belief, poorly reproduced and suffering from waves of hiss, ramshackle mania with vocals mixed way too high and bass distorted to a near noteless rumble. In other words: perfect. I think this is how these sounds were meant to be listened to, and COLLAPSE SOCIETY has been doing the thing for fukkn 25 years. Noise Not Music, motherfukkrs. 

DEMO '93

POLLEN

You can be "over" the noisy blown out punk thing if you want. Seriously. It's OK. How many times do you really want to hear tuneless bursts of distortion punctuated by high pitched "aaahhh! aaahhh!! aarrgghh!!" instead of choruses. I get it. We all do. I'm just saying though.....you are missing out. These Philadelphia mutants took off the fukkn roof at last spring's Manic Relapse (POLLEN and THE DARK were pretty much worth the entire price of admission), and this tape (released for their trip to the fest) is relentless. Five studio tracks in as many minutes, DBeat riffs struggling to keep up with the perhaps fastest the tupa-tupa I have ever heard. It's textbook, and it's awesome. Raw as fukk rehearsal recording on the flip - just in case you thought I was joking when I said they can deliver the goods live. This band is a monster.

MANIC RELAPSE IV DEMO

CUNTROACHES

THIS. Complete overload, complete mania. Total aural blitzkrieg. Noisier than your band, and more fukkn guts than just about anyone can muster, even in their wildest dreams. After the churning brain melt of "Scum Parole," to roll right into the drum beat (so simple, so out of place, so perfect) that starts "Hard Stool," and then to just torture the shit out of that beat with low end and feedback before descending into relentless and monotonous bursts of chaos. Ugh. This Berlin trio is every kind of awesome. More please - NOW!

CUNTROACHES

Also, the bass player is named Suckles.

SONIC ORDER

A lot of people start their weeks on Monday. And for those people, I suggest that you start this week with England's SONIC ORDER. Opening with thunderous and destroyed tupa-tupa that listens more like Japanese bombast....and then they unleash. And when they unleash, SONIC ORDER are terrifying. If this is any indication, your week is going to be pretty fierce. 

SONIC ORDER

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Nasty garage hardcore, noisy pogo punk, blown out distortion fests, angular no wave...what the fuck do you want that this compilation doesn't deliver? Sandwiches? Well those don't come in plastic shells (at least they shouldn't) so eat these tracks or no dessert. CUM, SPETSNAZ, FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT, CHEMOS, THE OINTMENT, MPK, FRANKY...and some guy named Steve. 

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Link repaired...thanks to all who let me know I fukkd up. It happens sometimes....

DECONSTRUCTION

Pure and absolute noise fukkn punk assault. Imagine Japanese crasher crust with the bombasity replaced with walls of muffled insanity and distortion, and then make it more brooding and distorted than that. Massive and oppressive sounds from a band who dropped just two demos before (to my knowledge) slipping away. 

DECONSTRUCTION

CONTROL GROUP

Below this text, lurking behind the green highlighted text that says CONTROL GROUP, you will find five of the noisiest, most fukkd sounding minutes ever shared on The Escape. I know I've said before (many times) that bands are taking the noise punk thing to new heights, but this one is something different. There are songs in there...(somewhere)...but it's like they are breaking everything in an AM radio broadcast studio trying desperately to be heard. The mosh part in "Junk" is the thing that madness is made of. CONTROL FROUP is fukkn insane. 

CONTROL GROUP

SCHIZOPHASIA

True freeks turning punk sounds into mangled space-fi noise. In the world of demented noise punk and people trying so hard to be noisier and more chaotic and more distorted than everyone else, Ottawa's SCHIZOPHASIA are so very far out there that comparisons are useless. Bypassing virtually all of the punk this time around and embracing noise and aural hallucinations with equal vigor, 5000 is on another plane entirely, and serves as a perhaps predictable progression from previous releases (all recommended). Antiracist anarcho/industrial/mutant/NOISE. Indescribably weird...

5000

EXACERBACÍON

Costa Rica's EXACERBACÍON blipped onto my radar a few years ago, and I just took an extended tour of their discography and was reminded how appealing the world of guttural shit-fi grindcore can be. No nuance, just brutality and blasting and fukkn filth. Muerte Imminente is from 2010, but there are at least 15 more releases you should get into after to choke this one down. 

MUERTE IMMINENTE

THE BUG

Light speed Midwest freak show for thinking punks.

Way the fukk out there, and not even remotely cool.

You'll thank me.

ROOM 44 SESSIONS

HATSURI

One quick ear to the bass that opens this 2009 tape and you think you know what you're in for. Then come the drums, and you start to realize that HATSURI are so much more over the top than you thought. Frantic, noisy, chaotic Japanese insanity of the highest order here - piercing noise punk guitars, thunderous drums, riffs that go from start to weird to warp speed and back to Japanese hardcore in half a minute, and the vocals are every bit as manic as the music demands. Total under the radar banger, and from what I can tell this release on Freedom Fighter is the totality of their output - I guess if you're gonna go fast, you might as well go strong.

6 TRACKS TAPE